My smart speaker setup

I aspire to write more about my smart home setup here but doing so requires a style of writing that doesn’t always come easily for me. So I decided to podcast about it. Scroll below to hear my recent conversation with David MacDonald about how I set up my smart speakers. Click here to learn about my favorite smart home devices.

Episode Description:

Robby and David (music composition, theory, and technology teacher at the Wichita State University) compare smart speakers, their assistants, and their smart home ecosystems. This episode covers the HomePod, Google Nest, Amazon Echo, Siri, Alexa, Google Assistant, Sonos speakers, and the various quirks that result from trying to use them in combination.

Backstage Access Patreon supporters get extended conversation about Apple Notes, DEVONthink, Standard Music Font Layout compatibility, FileMaker databases, student motivation, grading (and ungrading), and sticker charts.

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Show Notes:

• Ungrading: Why Rating Students Undermines Learning (and What to Do Instead) (Teaching and Learning in Higher Education)
• Zach Gage apps
• Apple Arcade
• Scoring Notes: Learning how to use music notation software
• Music Ed Tech Talk Episode 34 - WWDC 2021
• Soro- Sonos Siri Shortcuts app
• Scary Pockets vinyl Patreon
• _DavidSmith apps--> Watchsmith and Widgetsmith
• Stream Deck
• My appearance on the MusicFirst podcast
• My podcast featuring Rogue Amoeba CEO Paul Kafasis

App of the Week:
Robby - HomeRun 2
David MacDonald - Letterpress

Album of the Week:
Robby - Hiatus Kaiyote - Mood Valiant
David MacDonald - Frederic Rzewski: The People United Will Never Be Defeated - Ursula Oppens | The People United Will Never Be Defeated - Kaj Schumacher | Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues

Tech Tip of the Week:
Robby - Use a clipboard manager
David MacDonald - New stream deck store!

Where to Find Us:
Robby - Twitter | Blog | Book
David MacDonald - Twitter | Website

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MusGlyphs is a useful font for typing music symbols into a word procesor

Check out the update to MusGlyphs, a font for typing music symbols into a word processor. Scoring Notes has the details. Click to read their writeup below.

MusGlyphs updated to 2.1; text version added - Scoring Notes:

MusGlyphs has been updated to version 2.1. MusGlyphs is the font by Dan Kreider that makes it easier to type a wide variety of musical symbols directly into a word processor, combined with text fonts, without needing to adjust baselines or point sizes.

Among the notable improvements in this version is the addition of MusGlyphs Text, a version of MusGlyphs with regular and bold variants that allows the user to type ordinary text and musical symbols without needing to switch between two different fonts.

This isn’t something I have used a ton but I am excited to check this version out in more detail. It could be really useful for making music worksheets in a word processor like Pages or Word. Unfortunately, Google Docs (to my knowledge) still has terrible support for third party fonts.

Creating Rehearsal Automations and Workflows with iPadOS 15

Apple’s forthcoming fall operating system updates became available in a public beta on Wednesday. I like to stay up to date on what I will do with my computers each fall and these new updates feature a ton of productivity boosts. Naturally, I chose to dive in.

For now, I have installed just the iOS 15 beta on my iPad. It is a low-stakes device for me, and I am most dependent on it for using forScore in rehearsal and concerts (the official releases will have shipped by my next concerts). I have also read that these betas are relatively stable, but anything is possible, so if you do this (which I don’t recommend), make sure you backup your data!

There are a few productivity features I immediately began experimenting with.

Widgets on the Home Screen

The iPad now allows you to put widgets anywhere on the home screen. I am trying an experiment that strips most of the apps off the main page and instead makes a productivity dashboard. It’s pretty nice!

Focus Modes

You can design your own contextual Do Not Disturb modes on iOS 15. Each focus allows you to decide…

1. Which apps can be used

2. Which contacts can notify you

3. What your home screen looks like

4. And more

I set up the default Personal and Work focus modes that come built into the OS. My thinking for these is that Personal focus will be similar to regular Do Not Disturb but will only allow close family to text me. Work focus I set up to only allow notifications from email and Slack and limited it to only apps I use for doing logistic desk work and advancing projects.

Here is where things get fun. I created a Rehearsal Focus mode that shuts off access to all apps except the ones I use in rehearsal. It only allows members of my music team to reach me. It is designed to help me stay focused while teaching.

I haven’t done much with customizing the home screen in these various modes of focus yet, but I imagine the automation potential to be huge.

New Shortcuts Actions

A TON of new Shortcuts actions are available to all operating systems (and the Mac is getting the Shortcuts app in this update!)

Shortcuts isn’t as powerful in my work life as it is in my personal life because most of my music and education apps have insufficient (or no) Shortcuts support. But that doesn’t mean I can’t trim tons of time eliminating the friction of iPad multitasking.

In most rehearsals, I open the same apps and files on screen. Now, with a one-tap Shortcut, I can have my iPad go into the new Rehearsal Focus mode, open forScore on the left, GoodNotes on the right (with a blank new note I can use as a digital white board), and a Tonal Energy Tuner app in Slide-Over. Now, if only forScore would add Shortcuts support so I can program it to open a specific score!

See it in action below. Then imagine how long it would take you to set up manually while you have 60-100 band kids entering the room and demanding your attention.

Here is a link to a copy of this Shortcut that you can tweak to your own liking.

6 Music Podcasts I Love

This is a followup to my post about my favorite tech podcasts from a few weeks ago.

There are a handful of music shows that are in my regular rotation. They span the topics of performance, conducting, theory, musicology, and pedagogy

Sticky Notes: The Classical Music Podcast

Great show for people who want to learn more about classical music, regardless of experience level with it.

Sound Expertise

Will Robin has conversations with scholars about music. This show goes deep, but I find it really approachable no matter how much experience you have with the weekly topic.

The Third Story

Leo Sidran hosts long-form interviews with musicians from various backgrounds. I particularly enjoyed the interviews with Cory Henry, Becca Stevens Louis Cole.

He really gets the guests to open up and reveal their humanity, intimate accounts of their life experiences, and creative journey.

The Brass Junkies

This is one of the few instrumental music education shows that doesn't feel like the air has been sucked from the room when I listen.

This show features candid, personal, conversations with brass musicians from all over, about their professional journey and pedagogy.

Everything Band Podcast

Mark J. Connor does an excellent job interviewing band teachers, performers, and composers of music for winds and percussion.

UpBeat

This is an awesome podcast about conducting, with great industry advise and interviews with conductors from all over.

I may be a little biased because I went to school with one of the hosts, John Devlin.

The show is great and the parody ads are hilarious.

Control Alt Achieve covers 40 Google for Education Updates for Summer 2021

Google made some big education announcements last week, including a bunch of education features across their apps.

Control Alt Achieve has a great overview of them. Click below to read more.

Control Alt Achieve: 40 Google for Education Updates for Summer 2021:

Summer is a nice time to take a break and relax, but Google has instead been busy working on new updates and features for schools.

On June 22nd Google hosted their "Anywhere School 2021" event (http://goo.gle/tas21) where they covered loads of announcements concerning 40 updates for Google Classroom, Google Meet, Chrome and Chromebooks, and Google Workspace tools in general.

In case you missed it, or are just trying to review through everything that was shared, see below for a list of all 40 updates that were shared at the event.

On the one hand, many of these features looks great (especially the education streaming feature with YouTube/Google Meet). On the other hand, it is easy to see that some of these features are born out of the needs of virtual/hybrid learning and may not be as useful as schools potentially return to in-person instruction this fall.

That said, it looks like there is plenty in store for Google Classroom users, no matter what teaching environment you may find yourself in this fall.

Getting Young Performers to Compose, Putting the E in Ensemble (and Much more), with Alex Shapiro

A few weeks back, I wrote and podcasted about getting my general music classes to compose, make beats, write, and remix songs this past school year. Read and listen to that here.

I am thrilled to report that I also got my band students to compose for the first time this past year, with very good results. I used composer Alex Shapiro's Putting the E in Ensemble curriculum (linked below). I am so inspired by her music, approach to composition, and general awesomeness that I invited her on my podcast. The conversation was an inspiration and a delight.

Listen to the episode and follow my podcast below. Keep scrolling through this post to see photos of Alex's amazing recording space and to listen to some examples of my student's compositions that resulted from using this curriculum.

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Episode Description: Composer Alex Shapiro joins the show to talk about getting young students to compose, the importance of composing repertoire for young musicians, writing electro-acoustic music, Putting the E in Ensemble, future tech, and her amazing studio space. Join Patreon for extended conversation about technology and overcoming blocks in the creative process.

Putting the E in Ensemble Links

Curriculum: - https://www.alexshapiro.org/Shapiro-E-ensemble_Syllabus.html

Wind Band music: - https://www.alexshapiro.org/ASWindBand.html

Show Notes:

The Great Hack - Netflix

The Social Dilemma

Christopher Cicconi appearance on Music Ed Tech Talk

Off the Edge - Alex Shapiro

Tight Squeeze - Alex Shapiro

Rock Music - Alex Shapiro

Count to Ten - Alex Shapiro

Toothpaste privacy Tweet thread

Apple WWDC 2021

My Scale Play-Along Tracks

App of the Week:
Robby - Magnet
Alex - Two Dots / SpellTower

Album of the Week:
Robby - Sarah Jarosz - Blue Heron Suite
Alex - O Seguinte é Esse / Howling, featuring RY X and Frank Wiedemann: Sacred Ground

Tech Tip of the Week:
Robby - Try widgets!
Alex - Back up your stuff! / Don’t get the latest version only to have paid to get the latest bugs!

Where to Find Us:
Robby - Twitter | Blog | Book
Alex Shapiro - Twitter | Website

Please don't forget to rate the show and share it with others!

Examples of student work

Alex's studio space

Music Ed Tech Conference, July 2021. Register now!

MusicFirst is putting on a Music Ed Tech Conference this summer. I strongly encourage you to check it out. It is completely free! There are a lot of great speakers including myself and past guest, Richard McCready.

Victor Wooten and Dr. Jeffrey A. Murdock are keynote speakers.

Click the link below to learn more and register.

Music Ed Tech Conference:

We are thrilled to announce the 2021 Music Ed Tech Conference: Renew, Refresh, Rebuild! This event is a completely free virtual conference held on Tuesday, July 20, 2021. It is open to all music teachers and features an incredible line-up of music educators from a wide variety of backgrounds, including two keynote speakers: Dr. Jeffrey A. Murdock (2021 GRAMMY™ Music Educator of the Year) and Victor Wooten (bassist and founding member of Bela Fleck and the Flecktones). Attendees will be able to attend breakout sessions focusing on specific content areas and strategies for using technology to strengthen and rebuild music programs in the 2021-22 school year and beyond.

My session is called What Do We Keep? I am going to talk about which technological practices from the past year are worth integrating into the future of teaching.

I pushed my tech to the fringes last school year, and I think it is worth investigating what new ideas are worth keeping, which should be quickly discarded, and which have the power to transform classroom environments. I will be talking about my experience through the lens of both traditional performance ensemble teaching and the general music classroom where kids are making music, crafting beats, and covering various styles of music. Click the link below to read more.

Robby Burns — Music Ed Tech Conference:

WHAT DO WE KEEP? 2:05 - 2:50 PM EST, July 20, 2021 Join band and general music teacher, Robby Burns, to reflect on which digital teaching practices are worth integrating into the new year. Find out how he has pushed his technology to the complete limits, using advanced organization tools and automations to speed up his logistical work, as well as digital collaboration tools to create rich and engaging assessments online.

Profiles in Teaching with Technology Podcast | S3 E20: Robby Burns

I am pleased to be a guest on the MusicFirst podcast, Profiles in Teaching with Technology, this week.

I had a great conversation with Dr. Jim Frankle. We talked about my journey into music ed, catching an interest in technology, tips for teachers who are apprehensive about tech, what my school’s music program looks like (normally and during the past year). and my favorite uses for technology in the classroom.

Check it out below and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.

MusicFirst - Profiles in Teaching with Technology · MusicFirst: Profiles in Teaching with Technology - S3 E20 - Robby Burns

Support Music Ed Tech Talk on Patreon!

As you can imagine, running a blog and podcast isn’t free. Costs of tools and hosting fees are monthly investments, not to mention the countless hours it takes to edit, publish, find guests, and other logistics.

Backstage Access patrons get access to an early-access podcast feed with bonus discussion. Ooooooh…. look at that pretty alternate artwork.

As public school teaching and private teaching are already far greater responsibilities in my life, this site has remained largely a hobby project to share the tools and strategies that help me manage my actual job, which is performing and teaching.

This past year, COVID forced me to be home more often and I felt a great need to share more of my experience with technology during a year where people needed it. I bumped up my average publishing to two episodes a month and a few blog posts.

I’d like to maintain that pace into the future and continue to produce deep, high quality content, that helps both teachers who are new to technology and those who are looking for more out of it.

Watch my Patreon Welcome Video.

For this reason, I’d like to ask for your support! I have four tiers you can choose from, and all of them have perks.

Click here to check out my Patreon page and show your support.

Become a Patron!

All supporters get a video update once a month which is kind of like an extended version of the Tech Tip/Apps/Albums of the week segments of my podcast. All supporters also get invited to the Music Ed Tech Talk Discord community. All you need is a Discord account and then you can join other patrons and guests to talk about tech, music, pedagogy, lesson ideas, hardware, tech support, and more.

There has already been some lively discussion there. I hope you will join in on the fun!

The Music Ed Tech Talk Discord community is a place you can talk with me and others about all things music, teching, technology, and more.

If you’d like to support, but not monthly, see my Buy Me a Coffee page. If you have something to promote, you can also sponsor the show.

I am looking forward to many more blog posts and podcast episodes, and to connecting with you online.

Become a Patron!

Buy me a coffee

The Discord even has custom music-ed-tech-nerd emoji.

New Software Coming from Apple (And What You Can Do With It)

Its been a busy few weeks as I have been wrapping up the end of a tough school year. While I am late to getting this week’s podcast episode out, I have been working on this site and have a bunch of content to share in the coming week.

I managed to sneak in enough time during the last week of school to watch Apple’s WWDC Keynote and to talk about it on Music Ed Tech Talk with Craig McClellan (cohost of my other podcast, The Class Nerd).

It was an opportunity to take a nice break from the challenging end-of-year procedures, and to think about how Apple’s fall software updates will impact how I get work done in the classroom. Listen below.

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Buy me a coffee

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Robby and Craig break down the announcements from Apple's Word Wide Developer Conference and discuss how teachers might use the upcoming features to their latest software updates.

Show Notes:

• The Class Nerd podcast
• Support the show on Patreon
• WWDC Keynote
• iOS 15 Preview | iPadOS 15 Preview | macOS Monterey Preview | watchOS 8 Preview
• Apps for Research and Remembering, with David MacDonald
• Overcast
• Dark Noise
• Apple Watch In the Classroom (The Class Nerd podcast episode)
• The Social Dilemma on Netflix

Album of the Week: Robby - Bones by Michael Mayo Craig McClellan - Sour by Olivia Rodrigo

App of the Week: Robby - Timery for the Mac Craig McClellan - Music Harbor

Tech Tip of the Week: Robby - Transpose Chrome Extension Craig McClellan - Feedbin

Where to Find Us: Robby - Twitter | Blog | Book
Craig McClellan - Twitter

Please don't forget to rate the show and share it with others!